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A direct competitor to Sonos' Era 100 speaker, the attractively designed Lifestyle Ultra has excellent sound for its size and built-in Google Cast support -- but you'll probably want two.

• HP India has been fined 1.42 billion rupees ($14.7 million) for two separate cases
• Self-reporting ultimately landed it with lighter fines
• Both cases relate to government tender manipulation between 2017 and 2020

India's Competition Commission (CCI) has accused HP India and some related resellers of coordinating bids for Indian government contracts on the Government e-Marketplace.

According to the CCI, the company and certain partners manipulated government tenders by predetermined or communicated bid prices, submitting deliberately uncompetitive bids to create the appearance of competition and controlling discounts.

The regulator revealed two separate cases for investigation – one relating to PCs, and the other relating to printing consumables like ink and toner.

HP accused of manufacturing bids to win Indian government contracts

In the printing case, the CCI uncovered emails, witness statements, WhatsApp group conversations and even a 2019 video from a reseller meeting. Discussions around which companies would submit supporting bids, prices and discounts, and which reseller should win particular contracts were found.

The CCI declared that a total of 16 Tier-2 resellers had violated its Competition Act through bid rigging, with HP India fined 119.8 million rupees and its resellers fined a combined total of 23 million rupees.

A separate case revealed similar conduct covering laptops, desktops, workstations, POS systems, peripherals and more. Similarly, five additional resellers were highlighted on top of HP India's core businesses, bringing this case's fines total to 1.3 billion rupees and 12.2 million rupees respectively.

The CCI's final orders bring HP India's total fines to around 1.42 billion rupees, or $14.7 million, excluding the fines imposed on its partners.

But the fine could have been a lot worse had HP India not come forward and admitted to its wrongdoing between 2017 and 2020, having submitted a lesser-penalty application to buy itself a discount on the fines.

TechRadar Pro has asked HP for a comment, but we did not receive an immediate response.

The enterprise technology industry has a peculiar relationship with accountability. When it comes to cloud uptime, latency, and data security, we expect contractual guarantees, SLAs, and clearly defined remedies. But when it comes to AI-generated outputs, the actual content these systems produce, we've quietly accepted a different standard: best effort.

I've spent years in commercial and operational roles at companies like Gap, Amazon, and Door Dash / Wolt. In every one of those environments, product visuals weren't a marketing nice-to-have. They were infrastructure. A wrong color on a listing didn't just look bad; it drove returns. A missing ingredient on a food image wasn't an aesthetic issue; it was a trust issue that compounded at scale and was dangerous to our customers.

So when AI-generated images started entering enterprise workflows in earnest, I watched with real interest. The efficiency gains were compelling: the ability to generate, retouch, and adapt product visuals at a speed and scale that traditional studio workflows simply cannot match.

But something fundamental was missing from the enterprise conversation: accountability for outputs.

The gap between impressive and dependable

There's a difference between AI that produces impressive results in demos and AI tools you can stake commercial operations on. For enterprise buyers, that gap matters enormously.

Consider what happens when am AI-generated product image fails at volume. A wrong product color in a hero image doesn't trigger one return; it triggers thousands. A distorted shape on a fashion listing doesn't affect one conversion; it affects an entire category. The commercial exposure from visual inaccuracy compounds at scale in a way that individual errors simply don't.

Yet for most of the AI visual tools currently available to enterprise buyers, the contractual position on this exposure is essentially zero. You buy credits, you run images, and what comes out is what you get. If the output doesn't match the brief, you absorb the cost: in regeneration time, in quality control overhead, and ultimately in the downstream commercial impact of content that doesn't perform.

This isn't an indictment of the technology. AI-generated images have genuinely transformed what's operationally possible for enterprise visual production. But the commercial model hasn't kept up with the commercial reality.

Why ownership changes everything

The reason most AI visual vendors can't offer meaningful output guarantees isn't reluctance; it's architecture. If you're building on third-party foundation models, you have no ability to evaluate, course-correct, or stand behind the quality of what those models produce at the output level. The accountability stops at the API.

The vendors who can make guarantees are the ones who own the full stack: the generation models, the evaluation models, and the remediation process. This is the structural distinction that makes contractual guarantees viable, not as a commercial gesture, but as something that can actually be operationalized.

When a proprietary fidelity evaluation model is running on every output before delivery, you have a mechanism for identifying failures before the client does. When you own the rater, the fixer, and the generation pipeline, you have the ability to correct those failures.

When you've run a feasibility check on a customer's actual catalogue before any commercial commitment, you know what the pass rate will look like in production.

That's the architecture that makes a guarantee meaningful: not a promise, but an auditable process with contractual teeth.

What contractual accountability looks like in practice

The mechanics matter here, because "guarantee" can mean many things. In practice, an enterprise visual guarantee should do three things: define pass/fail criteria upfront based on the customer's actual brief; evaluate every output against those criteria before delivery; and trigger a clear remedy, regeneration or credit refund, when failures occur.

Critically, the criteria need to be specific. Product fidelity failures, an altered color, a missing ingredient, a distorted product shape, are measurable and contractually defensible. Subjective aesthetic preferences, a lighting angle, a background tone, are not. The boundary between these two things is where a real guarantee lives, and where vague commitments fall apart.

For enterprise buyers, this specificity is valuable in itself. It forces the conversation about what "quality" actually means for a given catalogue before procurement, rather than after. That clarity typically improves outcomes on both sides.

The accountability moment for enterprise AI

We're at a point in the enterprise AI cycle where the conversation needs to shift from what these systems can do to what vendors are willing to stand behind. Capability is no longer the differentiator; the market is full of capable tools. Dependability is.

For enterprise procurement teams, this means starting to ask harder questions. Not just "what's your accuracy rate?" but "what happens when it's wrong, and what are the contractual terms?" Not just "can you handle our volume?" but "what remedies apply when you don't meet the standard we've agreed?"

For the vendor community, it means recognising that the era of best-effort AI in enterprise contexts is ending. Buyers who are running tens of thousands of product images through AI pipelines need the same accountability from those systems that they expect from any other mission-critical infrastructure.

The goal in commerce was never the most beautiful image. It was always an image that sells, reliably, accurately, at scale. Enterprise AI that can guarantee that outcome is the next competitive frontier. The vendors willing to back their outputs contractually are the ones that will earn a place in enterprise infrastructure for the long term.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

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Plus: Jurassic Park, U.K. politics, conspiracy theories, Pete Hegseth and numismatics.

Swapping in filtered water when brewing hot beverages improves the taste -- but that's only half of the story.

Republicans are spending more money and running more ads on immigration than Democrats are ahead of the November midterm elections, according to an NPR analysis of advertisement data.

(Image credit: Joseph Prezioso)

The betting site Kalshi emerged as a dominant sports betting platform during the World Cup. But the company avoids billions of dollars in taxes by insisting it is not a sports gambling operator.

(Image credit: Erin Hooley/AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Business is booming for Snap-on, a Wisconsin company that has made tools for professional mechanics for more than a century. It recently got a fact-finding visit from the head of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank.

(Image credit: Scott Horsley)

A decade ago, technology used data to make commercial real estate processes faster. Brokers leveraged tech platforms to gather data, run it through a process, and serve up solutions that flowed from predefined formulas.

Today, data is used to make processes smarter. With the power of AI, platforms are giving brokers more than fast access to data and computations. They are also serving up decisions. Data is no longer simply an input for a system, but rather the intelligence of the system.

The change introduces a host of new capabilities. AI doesn’t just accelerate processes; it automates them.

But the change also introduces new dangers. Pre-AI, data issues resulted in platform failures. Now, data issues result in faulty thinking.

For commercial real estate brokers, as for any business professional who has integrated AI into their processes, faulty thinking leads to misleading outputs.

And decisions based on those outputs have the potential to lead to big losses. Consequently, brokers need clean data to execute in the Age of AI.

AI-driven systems need data that delivers context

When it comes to data, context is the key to AI’s effectiveness. Accessing data is not enough. AI systems need to understand data.

The traditional platforms brokers would use to gain real estate insights might show parcel boundaries, zoning codes, permits, or points of interest as separate layers. They streamlined the access and filtering process, but users had to determine the context.

For AI to function as intended, it needs to understand how the layers of data relate to each other. It has to know whether a zoning district allows a use, whether the parcel size supports the intended development, whether permit activity signals market momentum, and whether surrounding demand drivers support the investment thesis.

Clean data allows AI to reason across categories. It does away with fragmentation, inconsistencies, and exaggerations. The platforms that empower brokers have refined, normalized, and blended data into one usable intelligence layer.

In the world of AI, reliable data is often described as having representativeness. It gives AI an accurate representation of the environment it is being asked to assess. Clean data ensures representativeness.

AI-driven systems don’t warn users when data is bad

Brokers use AI-driven systems to uncover insights they need to make confident decisions. But when those systems run on bad data, brokers end up with dangerously misplaced confidence.

The threat of being misled by AI systems is often overlooked because AI doesn’t warn users when it is running on bad data. It will confidently provide an answer that sounds precise, even when the response is questionable because it is built on data that is incomplete, outdated, misclassified, or overstated.

For real estate brokers, moving on any outputs built on bad data can lead to real financial consequences. A developer may overestimate the buildable area. A retailer may misread a trade area. An analyst may recommend a site that fails zoning review. An investor may compare markets using datasets that are not actually comparable.

AI’s intelligence is based on the data used to train it. Good or bad, that is the well it has to draw from.

General AI models can’t deliver the context brokers need

General AI models like ChatGPT or Claude can help real estate brokers if they are looking for general information. They can explain zoning, offer alternative financing options, or help explore the possible outcomes of a real estate scenario. But their intelligence is constrained by their data, which typically won’t include the localized, up-to-date, contextual content that drives real estate developers’ decision-making.

To qualify as “clean,” the data driving platforms used by brokers needs to be complete and contextually connected. Foundation models like those developed by OpenAI are extremely powerful, but they are not a substitute for clean, domain-specific data.

They cannot reliably know whether a specific parcel in a specific county has current zoning coverage, whether the local assessor data is missing a building attribute, whether a permit record has been matched to the correct parcel, or whether two providers are using conflicting land-use definitions — unless that data has been cleaned, governed, and connected.

AI can provide brokers with the reason they need, but only when it is given trusted context. In commercial real estate, that context is highly local, highly fragmented, and constantly changing.

Counties publish data differently, municipal zoning codes vary, and permit structures are inconsistent, to name just a few of the contextual challenges. AI systems become useful for real estate decision-making by giving them a reliable data layer underneath.

Demanding clean data is especially important for commercial real estate brokers because the cost of error is high. A site evaluation can influence acquisition strategy, entitlement risk, development feasibility, lending assumptions, and a host of other critical components. A small data issue upstream can become a large financial mistake downstream.

The only platforms brokers should trust are those that treat data quality like infrastructure. You wouldn’t build a high-rise on a weak foundation. The same applies to AI. The model, interface, and automation layer are only as strong as the data foundation beneath them.

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The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• The UK has the second-highest energy costs and planning environments in a study of 10 countries
• Britain also ranks ninth out of 10 in terms of overall network quality
• VodafoneThree wants networks to be seen as critical national infrastructure

VodafoneThree has argued that the UK is falling behind the rest of Europe in its mobile infrastructure because of regulations, which make it hard for companies like itself to invest heavily in the right areas at the right time.

According to the report, the UK is being set back by pressers from all angles, including high energy costs for running mobile infrastructure, expensive property and site costs, planning delays, restrictive policies and even competition from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).

More broadly on a global scale, the UK is also falling behind countries like Singapore, South Korea, the US, Norway, Australia, Germany and Hungary.

VodafoneThree slates UK mobile network regulatory landscape

Of the 10 specific countries studied in the company's analysis, VodafoneThree revealed that the UK has the second-highest energy costs and second-most burdensome planning environment. The UK ranks ninth on the scale of 10 countries for overall network quality.

"Bringing the UK’s investment environment up to the standard of our international peers could help to support public services, eliminate digital divides and enable communities to thrive," Networks Director Andrea Dona wrote.

The report warns that the UK could fall behind peers in terms of digital public services, national resilience and economic growth if the landscape doesn't improve, which is why it's working with the UK Government "to examine the barriers holding back our mobile networks."

One of the biggest changes that could impact the landscape is a shift to recognize mobile network operators are providers of critical national infrastructure, so that they're protected against some cost fluctuations such as energy costs.

"Fast, reliable and quality mobile networks are a fundamental driver of economic growth and prosperity," Dona concluded.

A father and son discuss an old Alaskan whaling tradition known as the blanket toss.

If you're on old AT&T plans -- or shopping around -- now's the time to see if you can save money or switch features with the new lineup.

• The Garmin Cirqa is a rumored screenless smart band, like a Whoop or Google Fitbit Air
• It's been the subject of a few unofficial leaks, and has been posted on Garmin's site in error before
• Another recent now-deleted post on Garmin's Romanian website has added fuel to the rumors

The Garmin Cirqa smart band is all but confirmed at this point. For months now, we've seen leak after leak about Garmin's Cirqa fitness tracker, and while we don't know too many details, it's seemingly a screenless smart band designed to compete with the likes of Whoop and the Google Fitbit Air.

Now it's reportedly leaked yet again. As spotted by Gadgets and Wearables, a recent update to Garmin's Romanian website, on the page explaining a feature called Health Status, mentions the Garmin Cirqa smart band (styled 'CIRQA') as a compatible device.

Health Status is a feature that combines five core metrics — heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration, skin temperature and pulse ox — to give an overview of your general health. It's a feature on most of the best Garmin watches now, so it's unsurprising that the Cirqa would be getting it.

The reference to Cirqa was reportedly swiftly deleted, but not before a screenshot was captured.

In January, Garmin posted the Cirqa on its own website, including color options (black and French Gray), before swiftly deleting it. It seems this has happened again. Add in other recent leaks, and you can see why it's basically confirmed at this stage.

The screenless 'focus wearables' category is having a moment. We've already seen the launches of the Oura Ring 5, Whoop competitors such as the Polar Loop (as seen in the image above, alongside the Whoop MG and Amazfit Helio Strap), and most recently the Google Fitbit Air. It makes sense that Garmin, one of the leading names in fitness tracking, wants in on the action while the category is still on the up.

I don't think a launch can be far away at this point, and I'll be keeping my ear to the ground for more Cirqa news as it breaks.

TSMC plans four more Arizona fabs, bringing its total US investment to $265 billion and expanding chip capacity amid surging AI demand and geopolitical risk.

The post TSMC’s $265B US Expansion: Four New Chip Fabs Planned appeared first on TechRepublic.

In this World Cup, VAR, or video assistant referee, has become ubiquitous (and despised by many). But there was a time when fans and teams loved it. What went wrong?

(Image credit: Alex Grimm)

American-led restrictions have blocked China from accessing some of the world's most advanced technologies, spurring China's efforts to build its own know-how and intensifying the tech race between the world's two biggest economies.

(Image credit: Ng Han Guan)

Spoilers for Heartstopper Forever ahead.

It's a mammoth task to bring a beloved IP like Heartstopper to a close, but creator Alice Oseman has done an incredible job with the new Netflix movie, Heartstopper Forever.

If you're bummed out because we're not getting a full fourth season, don't be. As Nick (Kit Connor), Charlie (Joe Locke), and the gang all brace before going their separate ways to university, a feature film actually reflects their growing maturity and crises of confidence much more fittingly.

As our favorite friends brace themselves before heading their separate ways to start university (and more, but more on that later), emotions are running high.

But do our beloved relationships survive the final farewell, and what is everyone planning to do next? Here's the full Heartstopper Forever ending breakdown that you're looking for.

Do Nick and Charlie stay together?

(Image credit: Netflix)

Yes... but that isn't without its challenges. We start Heartstopper Forever with Nick and Charlie as besotted and in love as they always have been, with the others gently roasting them as being the "perfect couple" while their own relationships experience problems.

But while Charlie embraces his newfound self-confidence through becoming Head Boy at Truham Grammar School, Nick is having a tougher time with his emotions. He's decided that he wants to put Leeds University as his first choice on his application, and the thought of drifting apart from Charlie is weighing on his mind.

Nick starts to close himself off from Charlie, not fully explaining why he's not feeling 100%. Charlie is left at a loss, only wanting to support Nick in the same way he's always felt supported in return. This all comes to a head at a house party, where the boys get into an argument.

As Charlie tells Tori (Jenny Walser), Nick is trying to prevent a future problem that hasn't presented itself yet... Charlie just doesn't know exactly what that problem is. At the party, Nick complains that Charlie has been avoiding him the whole night, with Charlie responding that he thought Nick might want some space to talk through uni and future plans with his friends.

Nick, slightly drunk, lashes out by saying that the pair could probably use some space. "So you want to break up then?" Charlie asks, with Nick replying, "Well, it sounds like you want to break up." With communication between them coming to a halt, that's exactly what happens.

(Image credit: Netflix)

Cue endless moping while keeping to themselves. Charlie stops eating and refuses to get out of bed, with Elle (Yasmin Finney), Isaac (Tobie Donovan) and Tao (William Gao) all staging an intervention by taking Charlie to Truham Pride. All goes well until Charlie spots Nick talking to a girl on the dance floor at a local gay club.

From Nick's perspective, he's just looking for friends. Just like Charlie, he's been unable to shake off the breakup, telling mum Sarah (Anna Maxwell Martin) that everything that has happened is his own fault, believing that it's too late to be fixed.

The day of Truham Pride, Imogen (Rhea Norwood) introduces him to a friend, who offers to hook him up with someone if he wants a rebound. He refuses and moves away, which is when Charlie spots him.

Days later, Charlie leaves a pack of printed disposable photos at Nick's door, asking him to meet at the beach. Charlie tells him that he thought that the pair could always talk to each other, but somewhere along the line, their communication has broken down.

Nick says that he envies the way that Charlie can express himself, as he often doesn't understand how he's feeling half of the time. The two make amends, promising to always look after each other. From there, it's back to being as loved-up as ever, just in time for the Truham prom.

What about Elle and Tao?

(Image credit: Netflix)

Elle and Tao are the relationship that doesn't survive Heartstopper Forever, as the pair get into an argument about their future plans. Elle wants to move to Berlin to become an artist, having a go at Tao for not frequently planning to visit.

Tao says that he can't afford it, with their argument made worse by a drunk Nick claiming that everything with Charlie is perfect (hint: we know that's not true).

The pair agree to a truce to help Charlie out of his funk post-breakup, and appear friendly at Truham prom. They have "one last dance" before things change for good, and are noticeably emotional at the thought of being apart.

However, there's a silver lining on the horizon. In the very last scene of the pair, we see Elle at an art exhibition in Berlin, with Tao arriving to surprise her.

What's next for the gang after they finish school?

(Image credit: Netflix)

Let's start with Nick and Charlie. While Charlie stays local, Nick gets into Leeds. The final scene shows Charlie going to stay with Nick for the weekend, being introduced to all of his new friends, clubbing, and getting pancakes for breakfast.

They're ready to write a new chapter in their relationship, and as they say, they feel as if they're "different" from typical teen romance... they're in it for the long haul.

Elle and Tao are accounted for, but it's Tao's video project at prom that lets us in on what's to come next for the rest of the gang. Tara (Corrina Brown) has asked girlfriend Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) to go interrailing across Europe with her, deferring their places at uni for at least a year.

Tori has a more skeptical answer, telling Tao that she will "do nothing, then die." However, things are going well with boyfriend Michael (Darragh Hand), having figured out the rhythm of their relationship.

Sahar (Leila Khan) tells Tao that the band, Queer Intentions, has broken up, but she's going to try a solo music career and see what happens.

Don't miss this epic Heartstopper Easter egg

Just as Nick gets on the train to Leeds, he walks through the carriage and passes a young woman reading at a nearby table.

If you're a Heartstopper fan, you'll know that this is Alice Oseman, creator of the original graphic novel series. She's also acted as the showrunner of seasons 1-3. She's also written the script for Heartstopper Forever.

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately for Netflix subscribers, that includes the blossoming romance between Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke). The Heartstopper franchise is drawing to a close with Heartstopper Forever, a feature film in lieu of a full fourth season.

Like most fans when they first heard the news, I felt cheated. Much like the original graphic novel books by Alice Oseman, Nick and Charlie's story is one best told over time. Two teens grappling with their feelings and identities need time to breathe together, let alone without their smorgasbord of friends who also all have their own delicious narrative arcs.

Now I've seen all 114 minutes of Heartstopper Forever — which is the equivalent of about 4.5 standard episodes — I stand corrected. As Nick, Charlie, and the gang all brace before going their separate ways to university, a feature film actually reflects their growing maturity and crises of confidence much more fittingly.

Newsflash, people: Nick and Charlie aren't kids anymore. In fact, the new Netflix movie wastes little time reminding fans of that, with a significant increase in drinking, partying and all-out sex scenes. Tender and wholesome romance can have an incredibly passionate side, too.

As a Heartstopper fan who has been in the trenches since the release of Oseman's first novel installment, Heartstopper Forever feels like the most satisfying ending that's able to be delivered. Nobody really wants to be in this position, but all of my questions are answered, and every single character is set up for their future away from our prying eyes.

Heartstopper Forever delivers everything a hardcore fan will want

You're going to have to trust my (excellent) judgement on the above statement, because there's no way I'm divulging anything even faintly resembling a spoiler in this review. As we know, Nick is getting ready to leave for university, and Charlie is taking on new responsibilities at school.

Elle (Yasmin Finney) has her mind set on big artistic goals, which means her relationship with Tao (William Gao) also hits its snags. More than any other characters' storylines, both relationships hit on the central theme of worth: does teenage romance even mean that much anyway?

As the push-pull effect of university and a daunting, vague future takes hold, Nick falls apart at the seams. Unlike Charlie, who has always been able to effectively communicate how he's feeling, Nick doesn't know how to describe what's going on in his head. It has the pair doubting the validity of their love and connection, even though nothing is overly wrong from an objective point of view.

It should be frustrating to watch two teenage boys self-sabotage, but the reality is overwhelmingly poignant. Even though the movie is called Heartstopper Forever, nothing in life is guaranteed — and I, for one, am fed up with pretending that doesn't keep everyone up at night.

As Tao points out, everyone has assumed up until this point that Nick and Charlie are a "perfect couple," and it's fascinating to watch how they deal with actual grown-up problems. Oseman has always had a unique knack for conveying the best of what love has to offer, and she's just as adept at holding a mirror up to the worst.

On top of this, watching the boys get physically intimate, drunk, and accosted by topless men wearing leather chaps at the local gay club feels like emotional whiplash in itself. Socially, we seem to have a difficult time understanding that young people grow up to do adult things, and Oseman handles these changes with touching sensitivity. There are some fans out there who have been waiting on tenterhooks for these moments... and the reality is spot-on.

Anna Maxwell Martin, I love you... but Olivia Colman was the better Sarah Nelson

(Image credit: Netflix)

So we can tick off the fact that none of our favorite characters are left hanging, and we know exactly what's happening with them and where they're going. Fantastic. However, there are a few minor misdemeanors that need addressing.

The main thorn in Heartstopper Forever's side the recast role of Sarah, Nick's mum. I feel like an absolute heathen even bringing this up, seeing new Sarah, Anna Maxwell Martin, is one of my favorite actors in the country. But when you remember that you once had Olivia Colman in the same role — and that she delivered one of the best scenes in Heartstopper's history thanks to Nick coming out — well, there's a somewhat sour taste.

Heartstopper Forever is the most narratively and tonally different installment of Nick and Charlie's story to date, but it is still essentially more of the same at its core. Don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a negative... but if you've come to the movie looking for something new, you're not going to obviously find it.

Still, Oseman should give herself the biggest paycheck possible for what she's been able to achieve. It's not easy to deliver a finale that already looks nothing like what everyone expects it to, let alone make the final result compelling, endearing, and ultimately remarkably satisfying.

Heartstopper Forever really is forever... at least, it is in my house, where I'll be replaying it so much that Netflix might issue a warning. Its spirit and generation-defining impact will live on, and that might be the most special achievement the streamer has ever been responsible for.

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately for Netflix subscribers, that includes the blossoming romance between Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke). The Heartstopper franchise is drawing to a close with Heartstopper Forever, a feature film in lieu of a full fourth season.

Like most fans when they first heard the news, I felt cheated. Much like the original graphic novel books by Alice Oseman, Nick and Charlie's story is one best told over time. Two teens grappling with their feelings and identities need time to breathe together, let alone without their smorgasbord of friends who also all have their own delicious narrative arcs.

Now I've seen all 114 minutes of Heartstopper Forever — which is the equivalent of about 4.5 standard episodes — I stand corrected. As Nick, Charlie, and the gang all brace before going their separate ways to university, a feature film actually reflects their growing maturity and crises of confidence much more fittingly.

Newsflash, people: Nick and Charlie aren't kids anymore. In fact, the new Netflix movie wastes little time reminding fans of that, with a significant increase in drinking, partying and all-out sex scenes. Tender and wholesome romance can have an incredibly passionate side, too.

As a Heartstopper fan who has been in the trenches since the release of Oseman's first novel installment, Heartstopper Forever feels like the most satisfying ending that's able to be delivered. Nobody really wants to be in this position, but all of my questions are answered, and every single character is set up for their future away from our prying eyes.

Heartstopper Forever delivers everything a hardcore fan will want

You're going to have to trust my (excellent) judgement on the above statement, because there's no way I'm divulging anything even faintly resembling a spoiler in this review. As we know, Nick is getting ready to leave for university, and Charlie is taking on new responsibilities at school.

Elle (Yasmin Finney) has her mind set on big artistic goals, which means her relationship with Tao (William Gao) also hits its snags. More than any other characters' storylines, both relationships hit on the central theme of worth: does teenage romance even mean that much anyway?

As the push-pull effect of university and a daunting, vague future takes hold, Nick falls apart at the seams. Unlike Charlie, who has always been able to effectively communicate how he's feeling, Nick doesn't know how to describe what's going on in his head. It has the pair doubting the validity of their love and connection, even though nothing is overly wrong from an objective point of view.

It should be frustrating to watch two teenage boys self-sabotage, but the reality is overwhelmingly poignant. Even though the movie is called Heartstopper Forever, nothing in life is guaranteed — and I, for one, am fed up with pretending that doesn't keep everyone up at night.

As Tao points out, everyone has assumed up until this point that Nick and Charlie are a "perfect couple," and it's fascinating to watch how they deal with actual grown-up problems. Oseman has always had a unique knack for conveying the best of what love has to offer, and she's just as adept at holding a mirror up to the worst.

On top of this, watching the boys get physically intimate, drunk, and accosted by topless men wearing leather chaps at the local gay club feels like emotional whiplash in itself. Socially, we seem to have a difficult time understanding that young people grow up to do adult things, and Oseman handles these changes with touching sensitivity. There are some fans out there who have been waiting on tenterhooks for these moments... and the reality is spot-on.

Anna Maxwell Martin, I love you... but Olivia Colman was the better Sarah Nelson

(Image credit: Netflix)

So we can tick off the fact that none of our favorite characters are left hanging, and we know exactly what's happening with them and where they're going. Fantastic. However, there are a few minor misdemeanors that need addressing.

The main thorn in Heartstopper Forever's side the recast role of Sarah, Nick's mum. I feel like an absolute heathen even bringing this up, seeing new Sarah, Anna Maxwell Martin, is one of my favorite actors in the country. But when you remember that you once had Olivia Colman in the same role — and that she delivered one of the best scenes in Heartstopper's history thanks to Nick coming out — well, there's a somewhat sour taste.

Heartstopper Forever is the most narratively and tonally different installment of Nick and Charlie's story to date, but it is still essentially more of the same at its core. Don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a negative... but if you've come to the movie looking for something new, you're not going to obviously find it.

Still, Oseman should give herself the biggest paycheck possible for what she's been able to achieve. It's not easy to deliver a finale that already looks nothing like what everyone expects it to, let alone make the final result compelling, endearing, and ultimately remarkably satisfying.

Heartstopper Forever really is forever... at least, it is in my house, where I'll be replaying it so much that Netflix might issue a warning. Its spirit and generation-defining impact will live on, and that might be the most special achievement the streamer has ever been responsible for.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday convened leaders from more than 60 countries to take part in the Trump administration's latest effort to quell what it calls "left wing" political terrorism.

(Image credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson)